Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1887-07-08
The Personal Liberty" Cry in Pro.
hbition Is the Resource of
the Demagogue.
From the Toledo Blado, !

Pnbilc opinion. We propose to discuss
tbs matter of personal liberty briefly.
II lsh fact known to all men that drunk
ards atd drinking men are made by con-
Ylvlal drinking, and especially by the
aboom.hable habit of "treating" which pre-
walls SO extensively. Two men meet in a
saloon. or perhaps several come together;
one invites the others to drink at his ex-
pense. Then another Of the party, not
wishing to appear churlish, proposes an
other drink at his expense; and so it goes
round the circle until as many drinks have
been taken as there are persons therein. 1t
is plain that such course of training will
very speedily beget in the system Of one
subjected to it, the abominable drink thirst
that craving, gnawing desire for alco-
holic stimulus which is incomprehensible
to any one not yet its victim; yet which is
most awful reality to those who are.
There is no human appetite so terrible
in its cravings as this. One of it's slaves
told the writer few years since: when
this informal craving comes upon me, if a
glass of whisky were set before me, and
knew to an absolute certainty that would
be stricken dead one minute after had
swalbwed it, would gulp it down." The
drink thirst is the only earthly approXima-
ton to the tortures Of the damned in per-
ditioI. 1t is a consuming fire within the
vitalS which can only be extinauished for
the time being by alcohol, and this in turn
incra ,ses the internal thirst on the next
occasion. 1t is plain, too, that as the very
great majority Of our drurkards-and a
drunlard is nothing but man in whom
the INN thirst has been established
causal by this convivial system of drink
ing, # the opportunity for treating were
reno ed-if there was not on every square
of every city of the land. on every street
of eve:y village, places in which this con-
vivialiH can be indulged-those men who
have nbt yet established this fearful rum
thirst, Ehis habit of drinking, all of the
rising generation who are as yet loo young
1 to have commenced, would be saved from
all dan ger of ever becoming drunkards.
The hste for liquor is not natural one
There pre- some persons who are under an
4 inherited curse, in whom the taste for rum
is a horrible legacy left them by an intem-
| perate father OF grandfather; but they are
as yet only small proportion of the entire
/! community. The taste Of liquor, to an
unaccustomed palate, is generally unwel-
come. A young man, to become drink
ing man, has first to overcome his repug-
! out of ten, this would never happen if the
opportunity for convivial drinking were
| taken away. How can this be done? Sim
ply by closing the places devoted thereto
Shut up every saloon. every public drinking
place, and nine tenths of the next genera
ton of drunkards would be saved.
But when such subject is preached, up
comes the cry that there is an invasion Of
personal liberty" Now, so far as the
rights of the rumseller are concerned, or
the individual right of each separate
| drinker to indulge his taste as he may
choose, they are but small proportion Of
the question at issue. It is not question
whether A has the right to sell glass of
whisky to B, or whether G has right to
buy from D schooner of beer and drink
it; but it also embraces the question
whether the wife and children and other
any rights which A or D or B or are
bound to respect.
The question is whether A has right to
fill his till with the hard earnings OF BIS
daily labor in exchange for the vile body
rot in which he deals while BIS wife and
little ones are starving at home, and after
getting from him his last nickel. and steal
ing from him his brains as we'll. turning
him out, to stagger home and beat and
abuse them. 1t is not question whether
John Smith, when sober, is good citizen
whose right to an occasional glass is not to
be interfered with; but whether John
Smith, having weakness for an occa-
sional glass, and bearing grudge against
his neighbor. may go to the doggery, and
after having reused all the baser passions
OF his nature by indulgence-having got
ten himself Fighting drunk may happen
to remember his grudge, and meeting his
neighbor, may murder him in his drunken
rage.
| Again, it is q question involved in this
issue Of personal liberty" whether q man
is not public enemy who keeps open, day
and night, resort which becomes the
Gathering place for the vicious and dan
gerous elements of society, whose sole &C.
| cupation it is to sell to them, as long as
they can beg, borrow, or steal the money,
his vile decoctions. which cannot fail to
render these persons still more vicious and
dangerous to the peace and welfare of the
community. The question comes up
whether the community has not a right to
guard itself against such a manifest danger.
Our friends who believe in taxation and
high license have reached the point at
which they<can see danger to the public
from such establishments. They seek to
eliminate the worst classes of saloons and
dives by the imposition Of d license, or the
16tyluS Ol d tuA, SuAASAC4o " SAo9O VIZ 1Aes-
iorlty of these low resorts. But the impo-
sition of any license at all, or any attempt
at reg ulation of the tariff, is a veritable adj
mission that the tariff itself is wrong and
vicious, and menace to society. There is
not any other human occupation, except
perhaps one, that is limited and hedged
about by legal precautions, save that OF
rumselling. All other means of livelihood
are open to all people; any one may enter
upon them, untrammeledb by legal restraints,
and untettered by bonds. The plain, hon.
est view of the matter is, that if the bust
ness is right for any, it is right for all; if it
is wrong for any, it is wrong Tor all. 1t
should not be limited nor regulated. but
destroyed.
There is no doubt but that taxation and
high license do good work in closing the
lowest and worst Of the saloons. Hence,
these methods may have their place in the
grand work of building up public sentl-
ment hostile to the rum traffic. All great
moral reforms are slow in their progress.
1t was SO in the anti-slavery struggle, but
the end came at last Progress seems slow
in the battle against rum, but the Ultimate
victory is not the less suro and certain.
Taxation, regulation, and high license are
not ends in themselves; they are merely
mile-stones on the road to absolute prohlbl-
ton. As we have pointed out above, when